On March 26, 2000 the City of Malibu submitted a draft Local Coastal Plan to the California Coastal Commission. The City’s appointed LCP committee, working with an outside consultant, spent five years and close to $200,000 developing this document. Everyone agrees that if this March 2000 document had been processed by the California Coastal Commission, the California Legislature would have never passed AB988 and the city would have retained the right to develop its own Local Coastal Plan.
There have been repeated attempts to discover why the California Coastal Commission never processed this document. Beginning in April 2001, in response to at least 15 direct inquiries from Malibu residents, our City Council informed us that the California Coastal Commission summarily rejected this document when it was submitted by the city. Specifically, they informed us this draft LCP was “dead on arrival” at the Coastal Commission’s office and was never considered by the CCC.
In a May 24, 2002 California Superior Court ruling, Judge Ronald Sohigian provided us with specifics on this draft LCP that had previously been hidden from Malibu residents. He stated that in fact “on June 15, 2000 the City Council withdrew this draft LCP from consideration by the California Coastal Commission.” This action by the city to stop review of this document led to the passage of AB 988 in September of 2000 and tasked the California Coastal Commission with the responsibility of writing the Local Coastal Plan for Malibu.
Why did the City Council withdraw this 2000 draft LCP from Coastal Commission review? Why didn’t they tell us the City Council was responsible for stopping review of this document? Why did they blame the Coastal Commission for an action they had taken? Why has the City Council spent approximately $500,000 to influence the content of the Coastal Commission’s LCP when they could have had control over the entire document without spending a penny? Why didn’t we spend this $500,000 to solve some of the recreational needs of our city instead of wasting it on outside lobbyists?
Steve Uhring